(A) Snake Forest

About three miles west of the castle ruins of Numata, Kozuke Province, there is a small hill in Fuse Village, Tone County, along the Mikuni Road, with a small pine tree named Hebimori (Snake Forest). It is said that old pine trees used to grow dark.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden named Totsuka, the daughter of Okura Choja (wealthy), in this village. Among the many men who proposed to her was a classy man whom she loved, and by secretly visiting her every night she became pregnant. When she was distraught because she didn't know the man's identity, her mother warned her and asked her how he was doing, and she told her, "Then when the man comes tonight, you can stick a needle with thread into the hem of his kimono."

distraught（形）取り乱した

She did as her mother had taught her, sent him home, and, waiting until dawn, had her servant search for a man's home using a thread as a marker. The servant looked deep into the mountains for the thread and found it had gone into a cave of many large stones, where it had been broken. He tilted his head for a moment to see what was going on inside, and before long he heard a break of agonized groans from the depths of the cave. The words "You were stabbed with iron in your body as punishment for going to the village every night without listening to me, your mother. I can't help but hate her, my enemy, when I think your life will end now "is definitely the man's mother's voice. "My enemy is the daughter of a rich man, and she is pregnant with my offspring, so it won't save her life, "she said, interrupting a man who said," No, the villagers are so smart that when it comes time for her to give birth, they put a lot of frogs in the tub, and if they let her straddle it, it will save her life because the children will crawl out for the frogs. ". On hearing this, he said, 'I'm mortified, mortified', and seemed to die. The servant heard this and hurried back, flying through the air in surprise, to give details. When the family heard his story, they were worried about her body, but there was nothing they could do about it, so they waited until the moon came to maturity to let her straddle the tub, and as expected, a snake cub crawled out. As they crawled out into a number of tubs, the daughter lost consciousness for a time but was said to be not life-threatening.

agonized（形）苦しんでいる

groan（名）呻き声

tilt（動）かしげる

offspring（名）子、子孫

straddle（動）またがる

life-threatening（形）生命を脅かす

But the rich man was dissatisfied. He said this must have been fate, and he gathered the snake cubs she gave birth to, buried them in one place, planted many pine trees on them, and built a small shrine on them, and even now it is made of cut stone. (Kohei Sumioka in Fuse, Gunma Prefecture)

dissatisfied（形）不満な

Note: This story has been handed down in the form of a fairy tale in Matsue, Izumo Province. Once upon a time, there was a man who came every night secretly to the only daughter of a wealthy man. She was attracted to his earnest desire and before she knew it had become a sexual relationship, but she was too ashamed to reveal this to anyone, and her complexion faded day by day as she agonized alone. Her nanny was suspicious of this and asked how she was doing. She couldn't help but confide in detail what had happened. Surprised but concealing her agitation, the nanny told her, "Then you don't have to worry about paying attention to me. I will prepare for it to be a good thing. If the man comes to visit you tonight, put a thread on the needle and do it this way." Not forgetting her nanny's words, she gently pierced the man's hem with the needle she had strung as he left that night. After dawn, she used the thread as a marker to search for a man's home, and from the depths of a cave in a mountain 40 to 50 meters away, she heard a distressed voice. When she approached it was a snake. The needle was stuck in the side of the snake. The daughter became pregnant soon after, and the children she gave birth to over the years were the children of horrible snakes, and there were so many of them that a large tub overflowed. In Matsue, Izumo Province, a snake's love for a woman is called 'Kuchinawa (rope with a mouth) ga miiru'. (Hyozo Shimizu)

hand down......伝わる

complexion（名）顔色

faded（形）色褪せた、弱まった

conceal（動）隠す

pierce（動）穴を開ける、貫く

overflow（動）溢れ出る

(B) Yagiyamashita

In Kasabori Village, located deep in the mountains in Minami Kanbara County, Echigo Province, the daughter of the village head Jin'emon was a rare beauty. There were many suitors for her. At some unknown time, a young man came to see her and made love to her, but he only came every night without giving her his name or address. She tried to get his address somehow, and one night, when he was leaving, she stuck a needle in his hem, after dawn, she looked for the thread as a marker, and heard a pained voice from the pool of the river that ran through Yagiyamashita. She looked in and saw a giant serpent. At that time, the giant serpent said, "I am the one who came to you so far, but I was stabbed unexpectedly tonight so I will die soon. Please live well. I will protect your house." A big wave broke out and the giant serpent disappeared.

suitor（名）求婚者

run through......流れる、通り過ぎる

After that, it is said that three scales grew under the armpits of the descendants of the heir of the village chief, and Igarashi Kobunji, a loyalist who lived during the period of the Northern and Southern Courts, was also a descendant of Kobunji, and his descendants still exist today. (Zenbei Watanabe in Sanjo, Echigo)

scale（名）鱗

armpit（名）脇の下

Mt. Miwa: A myth written in Kojiki. A beautiful young man came to visit Ikutama-hime at night, and they fell in love, and then she became pregnant. Her parents were suspicious of him and made her stick a needle with a thread in the hem of his kimono. When they followed the thread the next morning, it turned out that he was the god Ohmono-nushi. The sacred body of Omiwa Shrine, which enshrines Ohmono-nushi, is Mt. Miwa.